Greetings from CADRE
Dear Colleagues,
There is a lot to share since we last saw you at the November DR K-12 PI Meeting. We have been pulling together resources that we expect will be interesting and hopefully valuable to your project work.
The CADRE team left the PI meeting with a sense that we were hearing new voices in all of the sessions. We were quite aware of new researchers and developers in our midst, some first-time PIs and some CADRE Fellows. We are particularly indebted to the Fellows who participated so actively, and we encourage you to read their insightful comments (link below). Also if there are ways the more experienced among you can reach out to them; CADRE's major missions will be accomplished.
We have now received the synthesis of evaluation responses, and are delighted by many of your comments and anecdotes, and challenged by some of your very thoughtful recommendations. NSF has asked us to host another PI meeting in 2010, so we will put all this information to good use. We hope to continue finding ways to make the meeting less anonymous and include more working sessions. As always, we are open to your ideas and will again form an advisory group to help with the planning. We've reached out to many of you over the past five years, but know that there are those who may be ready and eager to help, and ask you to just email me at bberns@edc.org. I think we have a good reputation for "listening" although, as you know, there are always many agendas to balance!
We are pleased that PIs in the ELL working group and the Assessment planning group, both meeting virtually over the spring and summer, became acquainted "in person". A Dissemination group met for the first time, and there was an overwhelming response to that invitation. PIs have since indicated what particular aspect of dissemination is most interesting to them, and we have narrowed the scope for follow-up activities. The notes from these three groups are available for your review, and we welcome new members.
We feel quite satisfied that many of the special interest groups worked out well. Sessions included 194 participants, and although we all agree they were too short, the up-side is that they left a lot of PIs with an appetite for more! We have attached notes from each of the SIG sessions. And as we said at the meeting (although we know it may still be confusing), we are planning to sustain the groups that PIs found to be most relevant to their ongoing work. We will do this by transitioning them to CADRE.
In addition, we are able to now share with you the baseline DR K-12 portfolio analysis and our dissemination products. Because of interest in dissemination, we are providing links to the materials that were on our website and in past newsletters, materials that you may have missed.
We want to welcome Jim Fey as our new program officer and have found him to share our belief that CADRE should be driven by PI interest and need. We know he will be supportive as we move forward.
With best wishes from the CADRE team.
Barbara Brauner Berns
CADRE Principal Investigator
Event: Proceedings and Posters from the 2009 DR K-12 PI Meeting
Our appreciation to presenters, attendees and PI Meeting Advisors for helping us make the 2009 DR K-12 PI Meeting a successful one. Proceedings and posters from each session are now available online. (Note that this link directs you to the website used for the 2009 DR K-12 PI Meeting. Posters and proceedings are also available on the CADRE website.)
Event: What Do the CADRE Fellows Have to Say about Their First PI Meeting?
The CADRE Fellows program provided 8 emerging researchers and developers with the opportunity to attend the recent PI Meeting and to engage in ongoing professional support throughout the year. At the PI meeting, fellows attended plenary presentations, concurrent sessions, and special interest groups (SIGs), and then wrote brief reactions to the meeting theme of teacher learning.
They asked such questions as: Why are studies of diverse learners often treated as a "specialty"? Or can teacher (teaching) quality be controlled and, if so, how? You will find that they posed thought-provoking challenges and questions and we encourage you to respond to the issues they have raised. Read and discuss Fellows' responses here.
Event: Advisors for the 2010 DR K-12 PI Meeting
CADRE is currently recruiting advisors for the 2010 DR K-12 PI Meeting. A few conference calls, and at least one in-person meeting, will help us to plan events that are in line with your interests and fruitful for those who attend. Our PI Meeting Advisors are an invaluable part of this process.
If interested, please email CADRE@edc.org for more information.
Projects & People: Assessment Planning Group Raises Many Important Challenges
The CADRE ELL Working Group, facilitated by Okhee Lee, includes leaders of projects that are developing resources, models, and tools to advance STEM teaching and learning for English Language Learners. Members had met over a series of conference calls and then in person at the 2009 DR K-12 PI Meeting. They started to learn more about each other's work, discuss the challenges related to work in this field, and build the first steps of a community around this emerging field of research. CADRE is working with ELL group members to implement next steps, including, but not limited to, assisting in the conceptualization of a synthesis study, developing a listserv, sharing resources, and generally increasing communication among PIs. A full summary of the Working Group's discussion at the DR K-12 PI Meeting, including a list of participants, is available here.
If you are interested in joining the ELL Working Group and contributing to future activities and discussions, please email CADRE@edc.org.
Projects & People: Working Group Focuses on Emerging Field of Research on ELL in STEM
The CADRE ELL Working Group, facilitated by Okhee Lee, includes leaders of projects that are developing resources, models, and tools to advance STEM teaching and learning for English Language Learners. Members had met over a series of conference calls and then in person at the 2009 DR K-12 PI Meeting. They started to learn more about each other's work, discuss the challenges related to work in this field, and build the first steps of a community around this emerging field of research. CADRE is working with ELL group members to implement next steps, including, but not limited to, assisting in the conceptualization of a synthesis study, developing a listserv, sharing resources, and generally increasing communication among PIs. A full summary of the Working Group's discussion at the DR K-12 PI Meeting, including a list of participants, is available here.
If you are interested in joining the ELL Working Group and contributing to future activities and discussions, please email CADRE@edc.org.
Projects & People: Dissemination and Knowledge Use Working Group
Beginning in spring 2010, CADRE will facilitate a working group focused on how project partnerships with districts and states can facilitate scale-up. With CADRE staff, the group will produce a brief that explicates and illustrates strategies, benefits, and challenges of partnerships with districts and states for purposes of development and dissemination. The working group follows a CADRE shared practice session at the 2009 DR K-12 PI Meeting, in which grantees discussed their efforts to disseminate and connect with end-users. Discussion underscored the importance of ensuring that products are usable for their intended end-users, and partnership strategies emerged as one topic for further exploration. Several participants experienced challenges related to fidelity of implementation, user adaptation, and measurement of effectiveness, and this topic may be the focus of a future working group. Products developed by dissemination and knowledge use working groups on dissemination and knowledge use will be shared with the broader DR K-12 community.
If you would like to participate in future Dissemination Group activities and discussions, please email Derek Riley (driley@policystudies.com) for more information.
Projects & People: Special Interest Groups Continue Conversations
Ten Special Interest Groups (SIGs) met at the 2009 DR K-12 PI Meeting to discuss common interests and challenges as well as possible areas for future collaboration and work: Algebra K-12, Designed Curriculum in the 21st Century, Discourse and Language, Early Childhood Education, Gaming, Learning Science in Informal Environments, Recruitment and Retention, Roles of Technology in STEM Teaching and Learning, Social Networking, and Working in Diverse Contexts. Summaries from each of these discussions are available here. (Note: This link directs you to the website used for the 2009 DR K-12 PI Meeting. Summaries of each SIG discussion at the PI meeting are also available on the CADRE website.) CADRE has heard from many PIs who are interested in continuing the conversations begun at the PI Meeting. CADRE is now determining next steps and identifying resources and supports for groups that wish to continue, including establishing listservs. In addition to these groups, we are introducing an Engineering SIG and will support new communities as areas of collective interest emerge.
If you are interested in participating in one of CADRE's active SIGs or have suggestions for future SIG topics, please email CADRE@edc.org.
Resource: Do You Want to Know More about the DR K-12 Portfolio?
As part of our cooperative agreement with NSF, CADRE is analyzing the DR K-12 awards portfolio so PIs, the public, and NSF can better understand the range and scope of projects funded through the DR K-12 program. The baseline analysis provides information on many facets of the projects that should be helpful in thinking about the entire portfolio. For CADRE, the analysis will assist us in identifying potential areas of need and interest to guide our technical support activities, and to identify potential topics for syntheses and thematic studies. Thank you for making this analysis possible by responding to our request for project documents. We would like to share what we learned from our analysi sof Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 projects as we begin our assessment of Cohort 3.
The final report on these two cohorts is available here. Please contact Alina Martinez (alina_martinez@abtassoc.com) with questions or feedback.
Resource: Dissemination in STEM Education R&D - Perspectives on Knowledge Use
CADRE has recently published a white paper that argues DR K-12 grantees can enhance the long-term consequences of their work by using insights from research on dissemination. In education and other fields, studies of dissemination have identified processes by which research knowledge reaches (or fails to reach) the practitioners and policymakers who could use it. DR K-12 projects at all stages, from early design work through completion, can benefit from an awareness and understanding of the challenges of knowledge use, so that what is designed can be suitably adapted and scaled.
The full white paper can be found here, and a one-page "highlights" summary can be found here.
Resource: Updated Dissemination Indices
For your convenience, we have updated the Indices of STEM Conferences, STEM Publications, and STEM Networks and Social Media with the latest information on organizations' and networks' activities, members, conferences, and publications, with up-to-date instructions for presentations and manuscript proposals.
Download:
Index of STEM Conferences Updated!
Index of STEM Publications Updated!
Index of STEM Networks and Social Media Updated!
Contact us
If you want additional information on CADRE or have specific questions, please email CADRE@edc.org.